I SO DON'T DO MAKEUP (book #3)

I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY (Book #2)

In stores now! In hardback and paperback!Sherry's baaack!! Sherry and her ghost mother team up in a new mystery. Can they keep The Ruler (Sherry's stepmother) safe? There's robotics, ghost hunting and some serious toilet papering. It's scary. It's spooky. It's fun. Oooooo. (p.s. Of course, Josh is back too!To order, online click here

I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES (book #1)

In stores now!

A girl. A guy. A ghost. A heist. Yikes!

Meet reluctant sleuth Sherry Holmes Baldwin!

Sherry (short for Sherlock) wants more mall time, less homework and a certain cute boy. Instead, she's recruited by her mother's ghost to prevent a rhino heist at San Diego's Wild Animal Park.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

It's
October and officially autumn. The nights are getting longer, and the
weather's getting chilly. (At least in the mornings and evenings.
Apparently, we're in for a heatwave this weekend. Ugh). It's still the
perfect time to plump up your
to-be-read list and settle in for a cuppa something warm, a bite of
something sweet and a great boo

I had a book all picked out to review this month.
It was a good, solid book, and I felt fine recommending it. Then Child
#4, my reluctant reader and 9th grader, told me about her weekend
English homework. She had to respond with five written sentences to a
prompt for every 20 pages read of her free-choice book. Cause that wouldn't kill a book for any
reader! (another discussion for another time) Anyway, she chose to
respond to the prompt: Would your parents like this book? Why or why not? And
she wrote that her mother would love MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD because
it's about an underdog teenager with autism and because it would remind
her of WONDER.

Naturally,
I abandoned my chores and sat down immediately to begin reading MARCELO
IN THE REAL WORLD. I
read the ENTIRE book. All 312 wonderful pages. And, believe me when I
say I had buckets of things on my to-do list. Buckets of things that got
ignored. But, oh well. When a book grabs you, everything else goes out
the window, right?

In a nutshell:
Autistic-like 17 year-old Marcelo is safe and comfortable at his
special needs school. Determined that Marcelo learn to function in the
real world, Marcelo's father forces his son to work in his law office's
mail room for the summer.

What
I loved: It's fascinating to watch
Marcelo navigate the real (?) world of the law office and
figure out who is friend versus who is foe. The plot is very, very
clever. I'm sure by the end, Marcelo's father is sorry he forced his son
to work at his law firm. Ha! The characters are fleshed out and feel real.

What
was a little meh: I could've done with less religion. Marcelo is really
into religion and confides in a rabbi when trying to decide how to
handle sensitive info he comes across at the law office. At times, I felt preached at. Although I'm particularly sensitive to that, and other readers may not feel the same way.

However, I heartily, heartily recommend MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD. Heartily!

Dear
FCC: I borrowed this book from the library. I know neither the author,
Francisco X. Stork, nor his editor, Cheryl Klein. But I'd drop
everything in a heartbeat if either one wanted to meet me for coffee.

And now....onto the rest of our reviews. Please click through. You won't want to miss a single one!